20 Best Album Covers Of 2021

British readers may know little of Belgian culture outside of its football team and its beer (the best in the world, like it or not). Yet, many Belgian exports actually made it onto the international music scene, such as Stromae or Hooverphonic, and Brussels-born pop singer-songwriter Angèle, who’s set to open for Dua Lipa in her upcoming tour, seems well on course to follow in their footsteps.

The cover for her sophomore effort Nonante-Cinq (Belgian French for 95, the year of her birth) seems at first like the most formulaic and bland excuse for pop rock party music, until you realize every girl on that roller-coaster is Angèle herself.

This concept, which feels a little superfluous in, say, Cosima’s The Fun Is Here?, is more properly used in this case: the cover manages to be both clearer in the message (with the different facial expressions of every Angèle each standing for a piece of her multi-faceted identity) and less in-your-face. Little details like the Angèle on the right holding an original 90s Game Boy make it crack the top 20.